The Olympics are underway, and that means we'll be seeing a few sporting events and lots of personal stories of overcoming adversity and making it to the winter games against the odds.  I realize some of these personal stories are necessary, but sometimes it seems like they're more prevalent than the sports.

The Olympics are about the athletes, and there are about 2,600 athletes participating from 82 countries.  That averages out to 32 athletes per country.  If every country brought 32 athletes to the games, each country would have an equal chance at receiving a medal.  The U.S. sent 215 athletes, Canada sent 206, Russia 177, Germany 153, and Switzerland 146.  While these five countries represent 6% of the nations, their 897 athletes represent 34% of all athletes.  Amazingly, 16 countries have only sent a single athlete.

As for the sports, I'm disappointed in NBC's broadcast schedule of the events.  My new favorite sport Curling isn't going to be shown on NBC at all!  (I know what you're thinking:  "Say it ain't so!")  It's true.  It's only going to be shown on CNBC or USA in the middle of the night.  Hasn't this ancient sport risen in popularity enough to be shown at least once for the entire country to see?  With this schedule, the only people who will get to see it are people with cable TV and Tivo.  I have neither.  Curling appears to be a simple sport where everyone says, "I could do that."  You just slide a rock across the ice and try to get it to stop in the middle of a circle.  I've never tried it for real, but it's addictive on the Nintendo Wii.  And you'd be amazed at how much strategy is involved.  Some day Curling will be respected for the great sport it is, but until then we'll just have to play the Nintendo version.